[kpeezy]

Hey everyone

I'm planning on buying a laptop soon and giving my desktop to my little brother. The thing is, I'm currently using an AV710 w/optical out to connect to my DAC. Once I get a laptop, I won't have an AV710.

Question: Are there any sound cards for laptops that would give me optical out? If not, I would be fine using an M-Audio Transit right? Thanks!!

 

[arterius2]

you can check this: Turtle Beach Audio Advantage SRM 7.1 Channel USB Sound Card (http://www.ncixus.com/products/24654...ACH%20SYSTEMS/)
scroll down the page to see how it could be setup.

enjoy

 

[krmathis]

Why not buy a laptop with optical out built in.
My laptop (MacBook pro) have optical SPDIF built in, and it works like a treat to feed an external DAC.

 

[kpeezy]

Well.. it depends on how much money I decide to spend on a laptop. I'm not going to spend loads more money on a laptop with specs I don't need just because it has optical out

Anything else? I already have a toslink (?) cable so is there anything that uses that? Well.. I guess it doesn't really matter since portable DAC/Amps don't have toslink connections right? Would it be better just to use an M-Audio Transit? I would rather not since that is just one more component, so any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[arterius2]

its best not to decide everything on a single toslink cable. unless of course, that this cable costed you a fortune and you defintely wont let it go. however, id just do a simple search on google for USB toslink soundcards or such.

 

[kpeezy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by arterius2 /img/forum/go_quote.gif its best not to decide everything on a single toslink cable. unless of course, that this cable costed you a fortune and you defintely wont let it go. however, id just do a simple search on google for USB toslink soundcards or such.

Why not? If it's available, then there is no downside.. All it does is save me money

Well.. does a DAC/Amp like the Move / D1 accept toslink? If not, I'll probably get something else. All I really want is a way to hook up a laptop to a DAC/amp

 

[senny-ftw]

The Move accepts 1/8" analog or USB.

Rather than buying a special sound card just to feed an S/PDIF (TOSLINK/coaxial) signal to a DAC, I prefer to choose DACs that support USB. This way, the DAC itself acts as the sound card. This gives you a more direct route, is less hassle and probably cheaper.

 

[kpeezy]

Well, the thing is, I'm going to be replacing my desktop with this. So for my home setup that I already have, I'll need optical out to connect to it. The portable setup isn't really a big deal since both DAC/Amps that I'm looking at accept USB, but I'll need something to connect the laptop to my Zhaolu. Any cheap options would be appreciated.

 

[jinp6301]

m audio transit should be fine. There arent a lot of decent soundcards that convert to optical without resampling. The transit uses its own drivers so it can output bitperfect data

 

[kpeezy]

Sounds like a good plan. I was leaning away from this thinking it would be an extra component and then I realized I would only be using it at home

I was getting my portable/home setup mixed up

Thanks guys.

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpeezy /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well.. it depends on how much money I decide to spend on a laptop. I'm not going to spend loads more money on a laptop with specs I don't need just because it has optical out

Ok, fair enough.
Cause a MacBook might be priced a tiny bit above a similar specced Dell, Toshiba, etc.

 

[kpeezy]

I actually didn't know if a laptop with optical out would cost more or not but, since I don't see that feature often, I thought it would be something in higher models. It would be nice though

 

[Packgrog]

The M-Audio Transit was twitchy, IME. Wasn't crazy about it.

I use an HP DV9000 laptop now. It has a built-in mini-TOSLINK port in the front, which I connect to my custom-built (by Mazuki) Monica 2 DAC, that I route to my RSA Tomahawk. Love it.

Now if I could just afford the second hard drive for my DV9000 I could have my whole collection ripped to FLAC wherever I need to bring my laptop. Getting there...

 

[krmathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kpeezy /img/forum/go_quote.gif I actually didn't know if a laptop with optical out would cost more or not but, since I don't see that feature often, I thought it would be something in higher models. It would be nice though

Its really nice.
Just hook up the external DAC to the miniplug optical out and enjoy...

 

[Sarchi]

Search the forum for "USB DAC" (with the quotes), there are tons of them available and even 10x as many opinions.